Do any of you really type faster with a mechanical keyboard?

[caseyandgina]

I definitely type somewhat faster on a mechanical keyboard, due to lower error rate rather than increased speed.  Mainly I think this has to do with smaller tops on the keys versus the wider/taller tops of the modern Apple keyboards I was using before.  I just went to an Apple Store and looked at their new ultra-thin Macbook, which has even wider/taller keys than before, and my typing on it was atrocious.

Furthermore, I type about 10wpm faster using the Truly Ergonomic keyboard with MX Blues than a traditional TKL keyboard with MX Greens.

I made much bigger gains in wpm switching from QWERTY to Dvorak though, even on lousy keyboards.

[TopreFan333]

I type faster with some kind of audible feedback of a key being pressed -- seems to make me more confident and fluid in my keypresses. On my Macbook, I use an add-on app (Keyclick) to provide that since the keys themselves don't make much sound. On my HHKB, obviously that provides its own audible feedback.

Good writeup of audible keyboard feedback here:
http://sustworks.com/site/prod_keyclick_overview.html

[ideus]

Mechanical boards are made to enjoy the typing experience more; thus, you would type better, maybe nor faster, but you certainly will enjoy it more.

[Seriously]

Nope. Did 10FastFingers with a Mitsumi rubber dome and hit 110, my highest. Only did it once again on my Filco w/ browns. Both were done in the past 2 months.

[Bucake]

Mechanical keyboards give plus 8 to comfy, not to speed.

this is the only reason i get (expensive) mechanical keyboards

and i've also come to love switching between different keyboards/switches..
i used to be convinced that there is that one perfect board out there for me,
but switching between boards every once in a while is actually incredibly satisfying to me

[hitaki]

It's like a car. If it gets you to your destination, it's done its job.

However, if you spend hours in your car each day, you might also want it to be a little more personalized and comfortable. If you have the money, you can afford to get one that suits you the best..

Same story for keyboards.

[Novus]

It's like a car. If it gets you to your destination, it's done its job.

However, if you spend hours in your car each day, you might also want it to be a little more personalized and comfortable. If you have the money, you can afford to get one that suits you the best..

Same story for keyboards.

Except, traffic permitting, you can drive faster with more expensive cars

[hitaki]

It's like a car. If it gets you to your destination, it's done its job.

However, if you spend hours in your car each day, you might also want it to be a little more personalized and comfortable. If you have the money, you can afford to get one that suits you the best..

Same story for keyboards.

Except, traffic permitting, you can drive faster with more expensive cars

Well you could do 'more' with more expensive keyboards, thanks to NKRO. You could type 'faster' with NKRO since your throughput isn't limited. I'm not sure how fast you'd need to type to be limited by key roll-over....  This is actually an intriguing maths problem:

"If little bobby has a cheap keyboard which can only register 6 keys at a time (per-second?), what is the maximum words per-minute he can type, assuming an average letter count of 5 per word... and including spaces between words"

[vvp]

"If little bobby has a cheap keyboard which can only register 6 keys at a time (per-second?), what is the maximum words per-minute he can type, assuming an average letter count of 5 per word... and including spaces between words"

USB interrupt transfer pooling rate is from 1ms to 255ms for full and low-speed devices. So if you would want to use this kind of argument then the speed limit is 6 * 1000 / 5 = 1200 words per second. Clearly, 6KRO is not this kind of limit for the typing speed.

Edit: But (if you do not want to use chording) then the right computation should be 1000 / 5 = 200 words per second. Which is still a LOT. To keep the sequence of presses releases only one key should be pressed (and another one released) at a time.

[TopreFan333]

USB interrupt transfer pooling rate is from 1ms to 255ms for full and low-speed devices. So if you would want to use this kind of argument then the speed limit is 6 * 1000 / 5 = 1200 words per second. Clearly, 6KRO is not this kind of limit for the typing speed.

Edit: But (if you do not want to use chording) then the right computation should be 1000 / 5 = 200 words per second. Which is still a LOT. To keep the sequence of presses releases only one key should be pressed (and another one released) at a time.

In other words, irrelevant to typing by humans.

[Palantas]

Got my first mechanical keyboard recently (since I was a kid, anyway).  Opened the box, plugged it in, and spent about the next 20 minutes doing typing tests.  Based on casual observations (I didn't make a spreadsheet project out of it), my speed improved 5-10%.  So pretty minor.

On the other hand, I'm at work now, I'm typing noticeably worse on the cheap keyboard plugged into the PC I'm on.  It feels off after a week with the Unicomp.  So I've probably screwed myself for nearly all the keyboards populating the world.